Commentary on pro-family issues in the media, politics and in the public square.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Obamacare not popular with the American people.

According to a new poll, lots of Americans in swing states don't like Obamacare.

A newly released USA Today/Gallup poll shows that, by a margin of 13 percentage points (53 to 40 percent), swing-state voters want Obamacare to be repealed. The poll included registered voters in 12 key states: Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, New Mexico, and Michigan. By a margin of 15 points (53 to 38 percent), registered voters in those state think it was “a bad thing” that President Obama’s signature legislation was passed.

When asked how Obamacare would affect their family’s “healthcare situation” in “the long run,” swing-state voters said Obamacare would make it “worse,” rather than “better,” by a margin of more than 2 to 1 (42 percent “worse,” to 20 percent “better”). That’s not a great result for legislation that the Congressional Budget Office says would cost about $2.5 trillion (see chart) —or about $7,000 per American and nearly $30,000 for a family of four — over its real first decade (2014 to 2023) alone. That’s a lot of taxpayer money to spend to make Americans’ health care worse.

Moreover, by the overwhelming margin of 4 to 1 (76 to 19 percent), registered voters in these 12 states say that Obamacare’s individual mandate is unconstitutional. Nationwide (not just in the swing states), a clear majority of Democrats — 56 percent — agree that the individual mandate is unconstitutional.

Even the Obama White House admits that, without the individual mandate, Obamacare would be “cost prohibitive,” “would lead to double digit premiums increases,” and “would significantly increase the cost [of] health care spending nationwide.” In other words, without its unconstitutional linchpin, Obamacare would be even more of a policy disaster (even if less of an affront to the Constitution) than it already is. That’s why, without the individual mandate, Obamacare never would have been passed — and why, if the Supreme Court strikes down the mandate (as it should), it should strike down the whole thing.